Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of… the 1880's, pt.2 (1885-1889)

100% voting Os Maias, which is funny and tragic and my platonic ideal of a big 19th century novel. There used to be a Penguin Classics edition if you fancy giving it a go.

The Bostonians is a masterly novel.

I find it problematic.

Only read the Strindberg. Although Hemso is not the best example, he is an amazing novelist/prose writer.

I find it problematic.

― neith moon (ledge),

Exactly. That's what makes it masterly. Peak of James' Dickens influence on portraiture, peak of James' skepticism about every -ism in Boston life.

The thread title only asks humbly for our favorite novel among those listed, not the greatest specimen of the literary art, so I have unapologetically voted for a piece of amusing fluff, Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog, by the redundantly named Jerome K. Jerome.

xp ignoring (for the moment at least) his ungenerous treatment of the nascent feminist movement, the emotions and motivations of James' characters are normally so deeply considered as well as deeply felt, that it seems unsatisfactory that one of the major protagonists here is such an empty vessel.

You could be referring to Olive, Basil Ransom, or Verena. I think they're equally venal but the way he plays with our sympathies by shifting POVs and modulating the irony impresses me.

The best essay on the novel I've read is by, of all people, Pauline Kael's take in her review of the deadly Merchant Ivory adaptation

I'll have a look (and a watch too, maybe). Verena is the problem, she simply has no inner life. Basil is a not unenjoyable moustache-twirling villain, I don't recall Olive so well but the critical take of her as a caricature is probably apt.

I should read the James and Zola novels and am now intrigued by Os Maias

The Mayor of Casterbridge is worthy, but I can't front, my favorite here is A Study in Scarlet

Basil is a not unenjoyable moustache-twirling villain

i want to take back this faint praise already! he doesn't have any schemes worthy of such a villain.

to James' credit, he finds almost nothing of interest in Basil.

Has anyone read Demos? I enjoyed (if that's the word for it) The Nether World and New Grub Street but didn't exactly feel the urge to read more Gissing after I was through them.

Can't be doing with Gissing, writing about downtrodden people and implying that they are getting their deserved lot in life, no wonder nobody reads him any more.

Obviously am going for Germinal here, in some sense the book that made me a socialist.

The thread title only asks humbly for our favorite novel among those listed, not the greatest specimen of the literary art, so I have unapologetically voted for a piece of amusing fluff, Three Men in a Boat

same.

germinal has been looking at me from a shelf for a few years now, maybe I'll get round to it.

It's fine to vote for the comic novel, or indeed the Victorian adventure novel if there's any Haggard fans in the house.

Although Hemso is not the best example, he is an amazing novelist/prose writer.

Should read something of his besides that pamphlet where he basically reiterates what Marx said and adds "BTW IT IS ALL THE WOMEN'S FAULT, INCELS OF THE WORLD UNITE".

am now intrigued by Os Maias

Its author, Eça de Queirós, is Portugal's biggest contribution to the realist/naturalist movement and our biggest pre 20th century novelist period. Early on he attracted quite a lot of controversy for anti-clerical positions. This is his late masterpiece, an epic about the upper classes in Lisbon dragging their way from ball to ball, bullfight to bullfight. It's very much shaped by Queirós' vision of 19th century Portugal as a nation in decline and decadence (kind of anticipates the post WWI malaise in European fiction in this); it's also often very funny. I find the ending very moving.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Should read something of his besides that pamphlet where he basically reiterates what Marx said and adds "BTW IT IS ALL THE WOMEN'S FAULT, INCELS OF THE WORLD UNITE"."

What was it btw? Yeah its a very unbalanced worldview to say the least ..

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Poor showing if only two of the three men in the boat turn up to vote :(

and their dog

The Bostonians is a masterly novel.

Not masterly enough for people to vote for, apparently.

Damn, missed this one. Would have been between casterbridge (my favourite hardy), germinal and three men in a boat so, I’m not sure I’d have lived the needle.

Pretty poor showing on this one.

A Study In Scarlet is such an odd book, the massive section in the middle where suddenly this is a story about Mormon settlers in the wild west, and no clue as to why for an age. This is on balance a good thing though. It's much better than The Sign of the Four, which is one of the most racist novels I've ever read.

Fans of Three Men On A Boat, I would recommend the sequel, Three Men on the Bummel, if you haven't read it already.

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of… the 1890's, pt.1 (1890-1894)